Jackie Danicki

Far too many people associate strident capitalism with being “anti-worker” and shameless support for big business. So this is well worth a read:

Big Business is often lousy at defending the market and in fact is only too happy to co-opt the State to make life hard for competitors…It appears that the U.S. retailing giant WalMart may be guilty of this by lobbying for a rise in the U.S. minimum wage.

Debate continues as to what exactly is the impact of a minimum wage on the unemployment rate in a country, but in theory at any rate, raising the marginal cost of hiring a worker presumably makes it less likely that said persons will be hired, other things being equal.

…Even if one takes the assumption that minimum wage laws don’t always raise unemployment overall, the businesses that lobby for them may think they do, or think that by raising their would-be competitors’ costs, that it will strengthen their own market position. In short, there is nothing very altruistic about it.

Come to think of it, the people who think capitalism is anti-worker also tend to believe that the minimum wage is pro-worker. So it may just be an exercise in frustration to get them to see the flaw in both of those ideas. Muggins here will no doubt keep trying.

Filed under: Business, Law, PR, Politics, The State Is Not Your Friend, Treating Customers Well, Work